Government and Civic Affairs

Congressman Andrew Young and his son Bo run down the hallway of the Rayburn House of Representatives Building in Washington in June, 1975.

Atlanta Mayor-elect Maynard Jackson makes a speech on election night on October 3, 1973 at the Sheraton-Biltmore Hotel in Midtown.

The sons of Atlanta Fire Chief Walthal Robertson Joyner pose as tiny firemen in front of the city’s Fire Department headquarters in 1897. From left to right, they are Ralph Joyner, Harry Joynerr, and Walthal R. Joyner, Jr. (also known as Cap).

Governor Jimmy Carter spends time making art with an orangutan in 1971.

Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield with entertainer Edger Bergen and his ventriloquist dummy Mortimer Snerd in February 1950.

For a brief and tumultuous few weeks in 1946 and 1947, Georgia had three governors. What followed is the stuff of political legend.

Born and raised in segregated Atlanta, Martin Luther King, Jr. grew to be the leader of the modern Civil Rights Movement and was recognized worldwide for his campaign of nonviolent social change. In 1955, while a pastor in Montgomery, he began his struggle to end segregation.

Ivan Allen Jr. served as mayor of Atlanta from 1962 to 1970, bringing significant economic growth and providing pivotal leadership during the turbulent years of the Civil Rights Movement.

Andrew Young came to Atlanta in 1961 to work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) after serving as a pastor in Thomasville and leading voter registration drives.

Elected mayor of Atlanta in 1973, Maynard Jackson was the first African American to be mayor of a major Southern city.

In 1925, the Chamber of Commerce launched Forward Atlanta, a campaign to attract business to the city. Over 750 companies moved to Atlanta, infusing $34 million in payroll into the city’s economy.

Atlanta is often called the cradle of the modern Civil Rights Movement. A strong infrastructure created by the organizations and businesses of “Sweet Auburn” Avenue combined with the city’s historically black colleges and universities helped establish positive change during the 1950s and 1960s.

As Atlanta moved into the twentieth century, it was two separate cities, one white and one black, reflecting inherent inequality. Separate was not equal, as expressed in the 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision Plessey v. Ferguson.

Future Georgia Governor Lester Maddox opened the Pickrick Restaurant in 1947 on the edge of the Georgia Tech campus.